David Miliband yesterday outlined his vision for the country - a fightback against the Tories and Labour despair - while firmly backing Team GB.

The Foreign Secretary urged party unity and said: "I hate defeatism about the country and I hate defeatism about the Labour party. We've got good answers to the problems of the modern world.

"We've got to show we've got the idealism and the drive to address the new problems. Defeatism about the country won't win any medals."

On the eve of the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, Mr Miliband said only Team GB had the answer to the country's problems.

"When I look at Gordon, Alistair, our team of ministers, we've got people who haven't lost the hunger for government - and when I look at our party members, I know they know the difference between government and opposition. They haven't forgotten the dark days of opposition and the damage it does to the country."

Despite being the front-runner in any potential bid against the Prime Minister, Mr Miliband chose his words carefully.

Asked which leader he most admired, he said "apart from our current one", it would be the headteachers he worked with while he was Schools Minister under Tony Blair.

"Headteachers are leaders who understand you've got to inspire, you've got to instruct, you've got to motivate, you've got to discipline," he said, citing qualities similar to those his supporters claim may be lacking in the current administration.

"I also admire the leaders of some of the community groups on the estates in my constituency. They know people's needs and hopes and fears better than anyone else."

But making an impassioned plea for unity, he added: "It is time for the party to come together. I've made it clear I don't think it's the time for a leadership election.

"It's time to address the fundamental challenges - that's why it's the time to pull together. This is a very testing time, but the point about tests is you pull together and you meet them. We need to show we understand the gravity of the challenges being put to the country, that we have the imagination and resolve to address them and the firmness of purpose to help people's lives.

"The Labour Party conference is a five-day opportunity for the party to put a strong, determined, clear, unified face before the public."

As he spoke to me on a train bound from London to Bristol, on his way to help in a party fundraiser, the Foreign Secretary launched a fierce attack on the Conservatives, lambasting leader David Cameron as a man of empty promises.

He said: "We have to expose the emptiness. There's a hollow centre there - they say they don't want to make people less poor, but they want to spend less money on it. They say they want to have better schools, but want to cut the school building programme. They say they want progressive ends, but in fact Conservative means are going to destroy those ends." Mr Miliband said Labour was the only party capable of solving the economic crisis and protecting Britain's ordinary people.

"It's not the same as 1997. But the changes Britain needs are still about making a fairer, better Britain, and in a way this banking crisis brings it out," he said.

"You've got Gordon and Alistair, who a year ago had to deal with Northern Rock, in the teeth of Tory opposition - and not a single depositor has lost any money on Northern Rock. And now you've got them acting decisively on Halifax.

"Then you've got David Cameron and George Osbourne who opposed the rescue of Northern Rock and have no clue how they would deal with the current crisis."

It was important to have faith in the British people, he added.

"We're quite good at knocking ourselves as a country, it's a national sport. Yet difficult times are bringing out the best in people. What do tough times do to British people? They rally them together. If you think about what defines this country it's our culture, football, it's also the sense that we're in this together. When times are tough, you need your family, your neighbours, your government more."

Mr Miliband is tired of the Broken Britain mantra of the Tories - and as Foreign Secretary, he is in a good position to see how much Britain has to be proud of.

"I see in my job how much difference we make around the world. Not just on kids going to school in Afghanistan or getting fed in Africa. It's also hard, difficult things we have to do around the world - helping avoid civil war in Kenya, supporting democracy in Pakistan, taking on people trying to destroy the government in Afghanistan."

On the home front, he spoke proudly of his own constituency - South Shields, in the north-east of England.

"It's an ex-mining, ex-shipbuilding community. It's a constituency that still bears the scars of the last two recessions - that is the truth - and we should take our inspiration in this downturn from the determination to see that communities don't suffer the same way. That's what protection is all about. "

He added a special message of support for all those marching through London today on the Daily Mirror-backed People's March.

"For those who are victims, no one's going to be able to overcome the searing pain they are going to be feeling every day they think about the sons and daughters they lost."

Mr Miliband added that Britain could learn a lot from the spirit of those taking to the streets to say: "Enough is enough."

He said: "Their commitment to the country is something we can all learn from."

MILIBAND'S 3-POINT PLAN:

The three most important things in politics, according to David Miliband:

Who'll protect me from risk, from terrorism, from climate change?

Who'll give me more power over my own life? Who'll make sure my GP is open when I want it to be, who'll make sure my children's school is really looking after the individual needs of my kid?

Who'll give the country a coherent sense of country, a coherent sense of team?

He said: "The answer to all three is Labour.

"It's about protection, control, a strong sense of control and cohesion. It's about belonging - and those are very strong Labour beliefs."

We've got the idealism and the drive to address the new problems. Defeatism won't win any medals

DAVID MILIBAND

When times are tough you need your family, your neighbours, your government even more